Join the League of Women Voters Moscow for a Speaker Series presentation, Social Media: Ignore Them at Your Peril, at 12 p.m. on Wed., April 30 in the 1912 Center Arts Workshop room.

In this talk, Kenton Bird will give a short history of social media, identify the major players in this ever-changing arena, and offer tips for being a wise user (and producer) of social media. The global media landscape has been disrupted by the arrival of networks, platforms and programming services that fall under the umbrella of social media. Characterized by their interactivity and decentralization, social media are seen as both a boon to commerce and a threat to democracy. The 2024 presidential campaign showed how political figures capitalized on these media to reach target audiences.  

Kenton Bird retired from the University of Idaho in December 2023 as a professor emeritus in the School of Journalism and Mass Media. He was director of the School from 2003 to 2015 and the university’s director of General Education from 2015 to 2017. During his teaching career, Bird taught courses in news reporting and editing, media history and law, and public opinion. He also taught the school’s introductory course, Media and Society. Bird earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1976 from the U of I, where he was editor of the Argonaut. He later completed an M.Ed. in journalism history from University College, Cardiff, Wales, and a Ph.D. in American Studies from Washington State University.  

Before beginning his academic career, Bird was a reporter and editor for newspapers in Moscow, Lewiston, Sandpoint and his hometown of Kellogg, Idaho. Before joining the U of I faculty in 1999, he taught for three years at Colorado State University. Bird is co-author of a biography of former House Speaker Tom Foley, The Man in the Middle, published in 2023 by the University Press of Kansas. He lives in Moscow with his wife, Gerri Sayler, an artist and writer.